Garrison Community Center celebrates 100 years

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — The Northeast is getting ready for another historic celebration.

The Garrison Community Center in Columbus Park is celebrating its 100-year anniversary from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Saturday, June 28. The event, which will be held at the community center at 1125 E. 5th St., is free and open to the public.

According to Garrison’s director Carol Green, the community center may be the oldest in the city. In the heart of public housing and within walking distance for many kids, the community center has been “an asset to families for generations.”

Saturday’s event will feature live music, a disc jockey, face painting, games, health screenings, a motorcycle display from Bikers Who Care, two drill teams and more.

The theme of the celebration is “The Past, The Present, and The Future,” which is fitting, Green said, because Saturday’s event will be about not only recognizing Garrison’s past, but also its future. During the celebration, Green hopes to promote renovations which will soon be happening at Garrison. The community center, which has not been renovated since 1959, will be getting an additional building which will serve as a gymnasium and storm shelter.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has donated money so that the building can work as a shelter during tornado warnings and other severe weather, according to Garrison’s recreation leader Ramone Thompson.

“I don’t know how secure the public housing is [around the community center],” Thompson said. “People will feel more protected [in the storm shelter] than in their own home, with us being close to tornado alley.”

Green said the building, which will break ground soon, should be completed by 2015.